>> hi everyone, this is al jazeera america. i'm john siegenthaler. is mosque attacks. twin blasts in yemen leave scores of people dead. i.s.i.l. takes credit for more bloodshed . unsealed. hundreds of thousands of adoption records. the new ohio law that could change lives. fracking rules. new federal safety standards why most oil and gas wells don't have to follow them. plus stand-up guy.

>> welcome to ireland, what is your name and the chinese guy is like and welcome shamus. >> the trilingual guy getting laughs from ireland to beijing. we begin with a powder keg that is yemen. the country realing in chaos and civil war. happened during midday prayer suicide boament rs targeted two mosques. over 200 killed, hundreds others injured. borders omanand saudi arabia, making it strategic to the region the world and now a target.

more than 100 killed. many more injured as suicide bombers attacked two mosques in the capital city of sanaa. >> two explosions took place in a mosque, first one was a security fence and the second was inside the mosque. why did they do that? it is a mosque, a home of god. >> reporter: the attack came during midday prayers when the mosques were crowded with people. >> translator: we were in the mosque during the sermon. we first heard the explosion outside year the security perimeter. then it becamen became apparent, they used the security to blow up prayer and blew up the first line of the congregation. >> the carnage devastating. survivors struggled to help the wounded. pickup trucks served as ambulances. hospitals were overwhelmed by casualties and pleaded for blood

donations. group says it's affiliated to i.s.i.l. claimed responsibility for the attacks but cannot be verified. the chaos that the yemen today. -- that is yemen today. the country has been embroiled in a power struggle since the houthis, mainly shia arabs, are forced the president to step down. control of the airport in the southern city of aden where forces rming loyal to hadi are holding. staff last month after u.s. and other western countries closed their embassies. further, isolating one of the poorest and most isolated countries on earth.

christopher swift has traveled to yemen and studied the conflict firsthand. he's a professor of national security at georgetown university in washington. he joins us tonight. so christopher i.s.i.l. claims responsibility for this. what do you think? >> well, it's hard to know john. my initial impression this morning was that this was probably an al qaeda attack al qaeda in the arabian peninsula is the largest caliphate there. the more i'm convinced that it is probably something inspired by i.s.i.l. if not linked directly to it. and here are the reasons why. first off it's a sectarian based attack focused on shia mosques. that is something we have seen i.s.i.s. very concerned with in the past. that fits their m.o the modus

operandi. the patterns that he saw in baghdad during the war the united states had in iraq. when al qaeda in the arabian peninsula is involved it tends to be outdoor not as sectarian and more focused on government focus. if it is not i.s.i.s. it is a group inspired by them on some level. >> what do we know about i.s.i.s. footprint in yemen? >> we don't know a lot. in recent months there have been -- some officials have come out and said they were monitoring the movement of foreign fighters into yemen. that there may have been some defections from aqap, to yemen to a faction more aligned with i.s.i.s. there were also some other jihad

jihadi groups that would be more inspired by i.s.i.s. and if i had to guess now that would be the kind of group that is probably responsible here. the difficulty is we haven't been able to get numbers on how many i.s.i.s. numbers there may be in yemen where they might be located, what their leadership structure might look like or who might be in charge and because i.s.i.s. is such a hierarchical organization you would think that information would be available. >> whether it is i.s.i.l. or aqap or another group what does the instability in yemen mean for the rest of the world? >> well, if you look at organizations like aqap and i.s.i.s, both of these are al qaeda successor organization he and executing on a play book that basically says you should foment instability or exploit instability wherever you can find it. and because yemen is in a state of chronic instability now and has been for the better part of many years it is the sort of

situation that would attract an organization like aqap or i.s.i.s. lay a foundation for its own agenda build up support among the local population and then take their campaign out of area. in this instance the biggest implication is the threat not just to the shipping lanes and the arabian sea but also the neighbor immediately to the north. >> i want to talk about another hot spot. investigators are revealing more about the suspects behind the deadly museum attack in tunisia. people gathered outside the bardo museum to remember those who were killed. 21 people mostly tourists. government officials say the suspects received weapons experience in libya. christopher come back in now. so the president of tunisia is urging his country to unite against these threats but do you

get the sense that tunisia has been sort of sweeping some of these threats under the rug in the past? >> well, it depends. tunisia has had a lot going on since the arab spring. much of it sort of trying to find a new continuum equilibrium. that being said is there have been 3,000 individuals who have left tunisia to fight in places like iraq and syria and have subsequently come back to tunisia. tunisian has been a funneling zone -- >> why? why did thousands of people from a country that went through arab spring and made a turn towards democracy go to fight for i.s.i.l? >> well, one of the difficulties we have when we think about what's happening in tunisia is we look at highly urbanized sophisticated areas like tunis

and we don't see things happening in rural areas or downtown south in the country that are closer to the desert. there is more economic deprivation down there. the society is more rural and the best opportunity for them is to go someplace else then they're likely to do so. we've also seen a lot of movement back and forth between places like libya where militia groups and i.s.i.s. affiliategroups are operating into the le levant and into syria and iraq, migrateing mujahideen. changes a great deal, we've seen this with al qaeda with groups in central asia and afghanistan. it is not surprising to me that a small group of individuals would be trained in libya and come back into tunisia to attack

these kinds of targets mainly western targets in these kind of urban museum space. >> christopher swift thanks for joining us tonight. ahead at 9:00, we look at this situation and where it's going from there. >> the break will last until next week it's meant to give world powers time osort out the differences that are complicating a possible deal. james bays reports from switzerland. >> reporter: after six days of almost nonstop negotiations with the iranians, secretary of state john kerry is still being positive. >> secretary how is it going? >> some progress. >> reporter: secretary kerry headed into a lake side restaurant where he was joined by energy secretary ernest

monez, and an official handling the technical issues for the u.s. >> we are recessing the talks. >> when will you be back? >> next week. >> here in lausanne? >> yes. >> daily morning walk by plaik genevalakegeneva has said he was ready to work through weekend although it's the holiday of noruz. final crunch leg. why the final postponement? there are clearly still gaps between the two sides and secretary kerry had to go to washington, d.c. for a meeting with the afghan president. there is another reason too the mother of the iranian president hasan rouhani died.

the p-5 plus one mack sure their position is unified before they return. france is taking a much more hawkish line than others. james bays, al jazeera lausanne. >> now to afghanistan and its new president will be in washington next week. ashraf ghani is meeting with the u.s. to discuss troop levels. president obama will soon decide whether to continue with plans to withdraw another 4,000 by year's end. the u.s. is considering keeping more troops in that country in response to new violence there and we'll have in depth coverage of the issues surrounding the afghan president's visit on our programs this weekend. join us for this week ahead the week ahead sunday at 8:30 eastern 5:30 pacific time. back in the united states sunday marks the one year

anniversary of a mudslide that killed 43 people and devastated a town in washington state it happened at oso. allen schauffler has more. >> 10:37 a.m. sunday there will be a moment of silence in oso shared across the state of washington. 18,000 ton landslide killed 43. >> a reminder of how many friends i lost. >> lamarla scag grew upland grew up here. >> i'm always going to see the devastation, forever. >> reporter: in the year since the slide hit the state has put a moratorium on logging in some slide-prone areas.

a bill to fund laser mapping of danger zones is working its way through the legislature. a governor's task force reviewed the tragedy the response, and the issues that will come again for people who live in that terrain. >> how do you get response for more of them once you understand that the situation is extraordinary? >> reporter: members of the community affected were collectively honored by the medal of valor. victims relatives have filed lawsuits, claiming they should have been warned about an active slide zone. >> much greater understanding not only of where places might be prone to landslide processes but the risks that may be run in those areas as well.

>> 43 cedar trees now stand as a memorial near a rebuilt highway. allen schauffler, al jazeera oso, washington. >> new frack rules how it could impact the industry. and for thousands of americans tax season is fraud season. cyber-criminalless are attacking the nation's largest online filing service.

>> the white house has unveiled the first major federal restrictions on fracking. we begin with libby casey in washington. >> reporter: the new rules set safety regulations for fracking or hydraulic fracturing. the boom in oil and gas across the country and controversy too. interior secretary sally jewel said in a speech this week that government oversight needs to catch up. >> many of the regulations on the books haven't kept pace with the advances in technology. they were the same ones that were in place when i was working on drilling and fracking operations.

>> the new regulations take place in june and only apply to federal and tribal lands. 5% of oil produced in the. the interior department says the regulations set a bar for states as they create their own guidelines. the federal rules require the industry to test the quarter of cement used in wells to keep -- test the quality of; used in wells to employeesed more information about existing wells and reveal the chemicals they've used within 30 days. however the industry can claim proprietary trade secrets. environmental groups say that leaves a loophole and some say the regulations don't go nearly far enough. but secretary jewel says the standards will help ensure safety of public drinking water and wildlife. >> we owe it to our kids to get this right. if we do, we can continue to grow our economy just as we work to protect our water, our air and our community. >> pro-development critics say the rules could hamstring

industry and aren't necessary. >> this is a case of the government just getting in the way and adding bureaucracy to a very successful story of american ingenuity that we've seen play out over the last few of years. >> republicans have introduced legislation to block the regulations and two industry groups have already filed lawsuits. but matt lee ashley with the left leaning center for american progress say the rules are reasonable progress. >> requiring that the company build a storage tank at the surface to help treat waste water is hardly onerous. it is something the community should expect. >> libby casey, al jazeera washington. >> some say the only way to protect the environment from fracking is to ban it altogether. jennifer london has more on that side of the story in los angeles.

>> new york last banned it. many have decried it. >> i plead with you please ban fracking, save our city save our state save our country. >> now obama administration has stepped in to regulate it. but many are calling the new rules on fracking weak. >> the resumes applies to fracking on federal land. it won't be touching any fracking that happens on private or state owned lands. the only way to protect from fracking is too ban it. >> many land owners in california want to ban it too. geneva has watched as companies have fracked more and more areas. >> they are ruining our air and being poisoning with benzene and we get absolutely nothing. >> he shot video of oil

producers dumping toxic waste into unlined pits near farm fields. >> if the groundwater becomes contaminated from the chemicals in the fracking process, what happens to your trees? what does that do to your crop? >> the contamination of the groundwater is very serious. in most cases the trees won't even survive. >> reporter: the majority of fracking in california occurs on private land. which means the new federal rules won't apply. as al jazeera reported earlier this week we are already know groundwater contamination has happened. more than 400 underground injection wells for waste have been drilled into california aquifers, including some pure enough for drinking. you're saying the regulatory agencies in charge in california have known this all along? >> they have. and we have recently learned the

extent of the water pollution crisis we have in california because governor brown's oil regulators have been ignoring basic health and environmental protect laws, they're supposed to be protecting the water we drink. >> this has led to an outright call for banning fracking in the state. cities towns counties have attempted to take action against fracking. only a handful of those have been successful. those looking to the obama administration to lead the way says friday's announcement has left them disappointed. >> we had really hoped that the rules for federal lands would provide abest practice that provide guidance for states and other agencies that were looking to ban fracking. given their limited scope to federal lands only, unfortunately that is just not case.

>> the obama administration says ultimately fracking is an issue that will be decided at the state level but perhaps these rules that were announced by the administration john serve as a template for beet state and local gas companies to address the issues around environmental and health concerns. >> so jennifer does california have fracking regulations? >> if you look at the legislature for 2013-2014 only one of the bills passed, sb 4 that goes into effect in july. till tymoshenko introduce some regulations with regard to the permitting process for new wells and it will also require oil and gas companies to disclose chemicals used during the the fracking process and the oil and gas industry says california now with sb 4 has the strictest regulations of any state in the country. but john, environmentalists and those opposed to fracking says

sb 4 is nothing more than window dressing and does nothing to protect californians. >> jennifer, thank you. tax season is almost here. which bring fraud now a former employee for turbotax is going public with claims the firm looked the other way to pad its bottom line. lisa stark has been covering that story she's in washington tonight, lisa. >> reporter: well, john tax fraud is a huge problem. the federal government paid out $5 billion in fraudulent returns. >> the sheer amount of fraud that we were knowingly letting into the network really bothered me. >> reporter: the fraud shane

mcdugal is online taxing scammers crooks, who steal real identities. until last month mcdugal was a security engineer for intuit which owns turbotax. this year, turbotax has seen thousands of cases. for individual taxpayers this fraud is a nightmare. when they go to file their individual return, either the state or the federal government rejects it saying another return has already been filed using that number. security screening making sure filers are who they claim to be was far too lax. >> one of the questions they would ask you know, supposed to be the challenging question is,

what is your last name? i mean, just ridiculous things like that. that for any sort of attacker, that's not a very high bar to cross. >> the problem got so bad that state tax commissioner flooded turbotax with complaints and the company suspended online state tax filings for 24 hours last month. it says users now have to go through extra security. in a statement to al jazeera the company disputed mcdugal's allegations, saying fraud is an industry wide problem adding any suggestion that intuit or any of its leaders made sacrifices for financial gain is unfounded. one of those leaders deputy general counsel in a conference call provided by mcdeug ldugal, is he it's the responsibility of the irs.

but consumer advocates says intuit is shirking its responsible. >> i blame this on intuit. more importantly intuit did not impose stricter security measures until it got nailed.. >> reporter: intuit gets its fees from taxpayers even those that were fraudulent. it ultimately determines are fake. john. >> lisa stark, thank you. coming up next on the broadcast, police and the mentally ill. what officers could do better and the supreme court case that could lead the way. plus. >> i come to the personal understanding that i might never know sort of come to terms with

that. >> a new law giving help to thousands of adoptees who want to know the truth and the tricky balance between privacy and the right to know. race in america hundreds of victims of the jim crow era and the search for justice.

>> hi everyone this is al jazeera america i'm john siegenthaler. adoption law the bold move in ohio. >> i come to the personal understanding that i might never know. >> changing thousands of lives. race murders hundreds of black americans killed in the jim crow south, accusations the u.s. intentionally failed victims and the new search for justice. police tactics. how to deal with mentally ill suspects. >> never do nothing wrong just triepg trieg totrying to do some shopping. >> the new training to help save

lives. the state of ohio is opening up more than 400,000 adoption records. starting today children adopted in that state between 1964 and 1996 can obtain birth certificates that include the names of their biological parents. bisi onile-ere is in columbus with more. bisi. >> john, hundreds of adopt heees waited in line to submit their applications. many have waited a very long time for this day to come. hopefully to be reunited with their birth parents and learn more about their heritage. a $20 application fee is only thing standing in the way of mark vidmar and his past. now 50, mark was given up for adoption shortly after he was born. he said he enjoyed a happy childhood but something was always missing.

what was it like growing up knowing you were adopted? >> sometimes difficult because you wonder why your parents needed to leave you. >> reporter: in search of answers, a redacted copy of his original birth certificate provided no clues. mark was shut out that sealed adoption records from 1964 to 1996. >> i had come to the personal understanding that i might never know. and just sort of come to terms with that. >> i think many adoptees feel like they're being denied their identity. it is a basic human right that most individuals take for granted that you can have documents that pertain to yourself. very unfair. >> betsy with adoption cleveland pushed for legislation that would provide for this evens. records that would allow them to learn about their biological

history. a new law is unsealing adoption records of more than 400,000 people. >> i have two daughters and knowing what health issues may arise in their lives is very important. heritage, ethnicity, where did my people come from all those kinds of things i think would be sort of that missing piece that i would like to have of myself. >> reporter: at first concerned that a lack of anonymity, would increase the number of requests for adoption records. >> did you receive backlash when you went in favor of this law? >> maybe not backlash but the fear of the unknown from new jersey right to life, new york right to life, right to lives on the webcast why are you

changing your position because we have been united for this whole time. >> what do you say to your opponents who say this law will open up the can of worms? >> i think the evidence is clear they have worked just fine the sky has not fallen there haven't been negative ramifications. there haven't even been complaints. >> reporter: less than 24 hours before the new law took effect hundreds of birth parents chose to have their flames removed from records. by friday hundreds of adoptees lined up at the department of financedepartment ofstatistics. steve kelly's first daughter was stillborn after his second daughter was born with a genetic condition he pushed a judge for his adoption records but was denied.

>> as a parent, it makes you feel helpless, not even knowing what you offer your children. >> you try year after year to get these documents and you're told flatly no. >> to petition the court and show them the human side and tell them why. >> steven kelly this belongs to you. [applause] >> reporter: so you finally made it to of to this this day. how does it feel? >> it feels good, whether i get letter in the mail, what am i going to do? >> vidmar's new journey towards self discovery is just about to begin. and ohio is the ninth state to open previously closed records. i'm told this new law could have

national implications. john. >> thank you bisi. steve kelly is one of four people who got their adoption records today. can you talk a little bit about how difficult and pain thfl process was for you? >> thank you john, yes it was one of those processes where even though it started many years ago i had a lot of energy in the beginning very excited about what we wr trying to do but quickly became frustrated how many doors were shut for adoptees at the time. that feeling of hopelessness, like mark said in his interview play never get to see his birth records or see his birth parents, a feeling of elation i feel like all the adoptees have that door open in ohio. they can step through if they choose to do that. >> how long were you searching for your birth parents and did you ever find them?

>> in 2008, i started my search hard and heavy when we lost our first daughter, cecilia and when we heard our daughter kaitlin had a genetic condition as well. i was fortunate enough to get involved with betsy and the adoption coalition. there were volunteers np in the audience that came and approached me and wanted to help me with my search, reunite ohio was the group that helped me and they did a fantastic job. confirming facts checking things with me so i was fortunate in 2013 to be reunited with my birth mother and as late as 2014 to meet my birth father. i've met both of them at this point. >> do you have any sort of relationship with them? >> yes absolutely, my birth mother was with me, whether i received an original copy of my

birth certificate. she had not seen this document in 39 years. as recently as last weekend we were having lunch with them. >> can you explain to me why some parents don't want people like you to find out who they are? >> absolutely. i think my birth father said it best when i first met him. he said i really didn't know what you wanted. when you came to find me i didn't know if you wanted money if you wanted a relationship. i think there's that unknown. and probably all of us have that fear of the unknown. it was hard for me to make the phone calls. it was hard for me to reach out and meet the people for first time just as i'm sure that parents that gave you up for adoption and placed you with a family, it's difficult to wonder, where is that child do they want to find me? >> clearly a big day for you and many other people in ohio, good to talk to you, thank you. >> thank you i appreciate your

time. >> this week we have taken a close look at police and the mentally ill and the issue has gained national attention. after a police camera video surfaced in dallas, officers there killed jason harrison, police say they lunged at him with a screwdriver. there's a similar case in california that has reached the supreme court. dealing with the mentally ill. jacob ward reports. >> resident social worker checked in on teresa sheehan. teresa has skit schizo-affective disorder. the tearnt attendant called for a

5150. two police officers arrived and entered teresa's second floor room finding her lying on her bed. they say she threatened them. they forced their way back in and shot teresa at least five times. >> the last one was pretty much -- trying to think of the word -- execution-style to her temple. the doctors and surgeon says it's a miracle she survived each one, let alone all of them. >> filing suit in san francisco the question if in the courts is whether the police are violating the rights of the mentally ill by going after them in an aggressive way when they know they're in psychiatric distress. the family won in the ninth

circuit court of appeals. now teresa's case has reached the supreme court. one newer tactic is the use of so-called crisis intervention teams or cits. right now just over 3,000 of the 25,000 american police departments have cits. san francisco has a team although it is not clear why the officers in teresa's case didn't summon it. the police department wouldn't comment on our story. cit requires an approach that is almost the exact opposite of the way the police are trained to handle a case, calm discussion. >> the cit officer stays calm and focused and continues to try to resolve the situation without a confrontation. >> i'm here for you ma'am. here to help you out, all right?

never done nothing wrong trying to do shopping. >> that's what i'm trying to tell him i need my keys. >> i understand. >> the issue is to defuse a situation. >> there are cases where officers have put that training into effect with wonderful result, that has happened and wonderful you know that's how it should happen. but why isn't that the standard? >> if this were your sister, this was your mother or your daughter, would you feel that that type of action is warranted? is this really reasonable? does someone who has no bearings of where they are at the time mentally, that needs to change. >> until it does frances has said she knows that in a crisis the last thing to do is to call 911. jacob ward, al jazeera, san francisco. >> new calls for justice for

victims of racially motivated murders from the jim crowe area. killings of hundreds of black americans remain unsolved. erica pitzi is here with that story. erica. >> those people went before a united nations panel on thursday calling out the u.s. government for not doing enough to solve hundreds of cold cases and the accusation comes seven years after congress passed an unresolved civil crimes act which created a budget of $13 million to reopen these cases. now it's up to the u.n. to consider whether or not the united states government played a role in ignoring these murders. in front of the world at a united nations conference in geneva, a group called the u.s. government to task for what they say is a failure to solve hundreds of racially motivated

murders. the united states has never come to terms with accountability for the devastating loss of life during a time of domestic reform after the legal end of slavery case in point mississippi in 1967, a bomb went off bomb was so powerful it reportedly blew parts of the vehicle into house he 150 feet away. a gang of the ku klux klan was allegedly involved but no one has ever been charged. producing a list of 126 victims 115 of those cases have been closed yet only a single case has been prosecuted. according to the cold case justice initiative there are more than 300 cases that have

not been acknowledged by the government let alone solved. now considering the amount of possible cold cases that have not been acknowledged the initiative group believes there could be hundreds if not thousands that have gotten away with murder. in attorney general eric holder's report to the government being evidence is shrouded so many years after the fact. >> ben greenberg a member of the cold case civil rights project. ben what do you think of this case? >> well john it's been really quite disappointing. there really was a great window of opportunity here to finally bring some closure to families who lost loved ones decades ago with no form of redress no course to justice and witnesses

are dying every day. and the opportunity to really approach these cases in a comprehensive ambitious fashion has been slipping through the fingers of the justice department. >> what sort of grade would you give the justice department on this? >> hesitate to get out a grade. but the performance has really not been what i would have hoped. >> well, is it willfully negligent, or is this just a bureaucratic problem? >> you know, i can't really speak to motivation. no one from the justice department has really discussed why things have gone the way they have. but what i have seen is that -- what i have seen -- consume what i have seen is that there has been i think there is a bureaucratic issue i've had an

investigator fbi agent investigating a case i was looking into, tell me needed to lobby his supervisor to get gas money to drive from jackson mississippi to the natchez mississippi area -- >> what you're telling me is they didn't get support from their supervisors? >> that was the implication of his comment to me. he was asking me to give him my unpublished notes so he could convince his supervisor that he had enough cause to come down from jackson to natchez. >> what kind of legacy do we leave this country if the government doesn't clear these cases investigate these cases properly? >> well you know as you reported there's really -- we don't know how many of these cases are unresolved. and there's countless communities around the south and throughout the united states where these incidents have occurred. and the message to those

communities is that white people can kill black people and get away with it. and continue to live their lives, walk among the victims' families and friends and be a respected member of the country. >> your father paul greenberg was a special assistant to martin luther king in the southern christian leadership conference in the 1960s. is that why you are so committed to this issue? >> yes, i grew up with the civil rights movement, history being the air that i breathed, and it was a be pivotal issue for my father and it was definitely a part of his legacy for me to continue to try obring some closure to some of these cases as best of as possible. >> ben, it's good to see you. thank you for joining us tonight. >> thank you. >> liberia has reported its first ebola case in weeks. it's the latest set back in the

effort to stop this disease. stephanie sy is with us in a story you'll see next hour. stephanie. >> john, the worst of the outbreak has subsided but the as any is not over. 10,000 have died, and many are bringing their lives back together. tonight we are introducing you to maseray she is make it her work to make sure victims are buried properly. >> i don't feel a baby not being buried right is proper. that's what i do. >> an emotional act that camara has come up with. >> thank you stephanie. an irish american comedian who

is big in china. >> say it would be the same as somebody telling me today fung dung wa. >> how he bridges the divide with laughter.

>> i don't know if you know this but years ago in ireland we had an economy and people went to ireland the work. so these guys would host families, they would be like welcome to ireland, what is your name? and the chinese guy was like fong chi wu and the irish guy was like shamus. >> i sat down with him for friday arts segment and he talked about the unique chals of

being a trilingual comic. i asked him how he got into comedy. >> originally, a deep desire to be liked and an insecurity about that. i was a natural performer class clown and all that. and the stand up comedy part, a friend sort of pushed me into it and then the addiction kicked in. >> and how do you become a trilingual comic? >> well i mean that's a process like a series of events. originally i learned the gaelic language. >> you moved to ireland? >> my story is too long. i'm originally from new york, i went to boarding school, i started making tv shows in ireland, i learned the gaelic language to do stand up comedy in gaelic. >> you learn gaelic and china and learned mandarin. >> now that's the last part of

the journey. >> now you're back in new york? >> i'm in new york, flushing, which might as well be in china. >> let's talk first of all how comedy translates into different languages, different cultures. did your stand up work in ireland? >> i'm from new york when i first started doing standup in ierbled, they didn't know what i was talking about. -- some famous irish star that nobody knows over here or they don't know the back story. certainly whether i started doing gigs in chinese there are a whole raft of ideas that don't work. grammar issues like, you know, where does the punch line go? like sometimes the grammar means you have to put the punch line before the joke which kills it completely. >> are there taboos?

>> china? that's all there is is taboos. china is all taboos. china you can't joke about the government. >> sex? >> they're not crazy about the dirty stuff. you can try but you're going to make the audience uncomfortable. >> what makes the chinese laugh? >> whether i figure that out i'll be a very wealthy man. if i could make 2% laugh. for me, i talk about the struggles with dating this china, the weirdness of being a 39-year-old single man in china which they think is outlandish almost a crime. they're totally up for laughing, i'm not sure it's a stereotype, but my experience is that they are up for laughing. there's a whole emerging stand-up comedy scene there. literally just started. it's difficult because you're supposed to apply to the sensor every time do you the show.

a small group is getting around that and starting a brand-new movie and they are all super-funny and talk about thaings bother chinese. it's interesting. >> you're moving bang to flushing and -- >> i'm from flushing. everyone who knows new york knows i went the wrong way it seems to be the other way around. odd enough, i didn't want to come back to flushing,ing but now but i'mglad i did. file feel just as welcome as when you left. >> i was going to say what's the most fun about being a cross-cultural comic a trilingual comic for you? >> any comic will tell you sometimes coming up with new jokes can be difficult. if you can open yourself up to an entirely new language, whole new experiences, it's a wealth of material that any comic would

be jealous of. >> i live in ireland now i was always issue really, raised in new york, raised by irish people i was raised by ferocious alcoholics. >> you must get a lot of inquiry about what you've done. >> it is great to be able to play with where you're dealing with the experience where i was the only white guy in the village so to speak and can i talk about my experience with that, being the fish out of water in that experience. it is fun in america to play a little bit with race and certainly play around with peoplepeople's perception about the chinese. >> clearly you're breaking down barriers. >> hopefully. >> it's great to meet you good luck to you thanks very much for coming by. >> thank you. >> des bishop, is playing until april 5th. now our picture of the day

ellipse, noontime in the nor weem annorwegian sea. daylight and darkness from the solar eclipse. i'm john siegenthaler, the news continues with antonio mora and stephanie sy after this.

chaos in yemen. more than 130 dead as i.s.i.l. claims responsibility for attacks on two mosques. >> after a suicide bomber blew himself up at the secure checkpoint the second took advantage from the first explosion to get inside the mosque. >> sympathy for the victims. tunisians remember the shooting rampage. >> i was deeply moved because they were innocent. they came to visit our country they came to visit us. have. >> reporter: